


by your side

by courageous_boss



Series: Comfortember 2020 (JATP) [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Comfortember 2020, Drabble, Gen, boys cuddling, luke shares hugs, reggie misses school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27463189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/courageous_boss/pseuds/courageous_boss
Summary: Reggie finds Julie's math textbook and he can't help but feel a bit sad.
Relationships: Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Comfortember 2020 (JATP) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2006560
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	by your side

“Reggie!” Luke’s voice rang out and Reggie braced himself for impact.

A few seconds later, Luke was clamming onto his back, hooking his chin over Reggie's shoulder.

“What are you up to?” Luke asked curiously.

“Um, nothing. Julie left her book here, so I was looking at it,” Reggie said, flipping absently through the pages.

It was Julie’s math textbook. The book was heavy and thick, with sticky notes and bits of paper stuck in it. She’d jotted little notes in and had done graphs and diagrams wherever she could. It was beautiful in a strange way what was making Reggie’s stomach hurt.

Luke’s nose wrinkled and he reached out to poke at the edge, “Ew. Math.”

He peeked at Reggie, eyes twinkling.

Reggie laughed, trying to choke it down and failing. His laughter was hysterical, and the more he tried to stop, the harder he laughed. Soon, he was shaking with it, laughing so hard his sides hurt.

By the time he could quiet his laughs, Luke had backed away a bit. Still close enough that Reggie could feel him presses solidly against his side, but far enough that Reggie could properly see the worry written across his face.

“Are you okay?” Luke asked, fingers drumming against Reggie’s shoulder.

Reggie stared down at the book, flipping another page. Julie had drawn a huge question mark in the corner.

A sudden realization bubbled up in his chest, burning. He laughed again, something short and wild and desperate.

He rubbed his chest, wincing, “I, um. I think I miss math.”

Math. He missed math. He missed school, and grumpy Miss Jamie who’d yell at him for showing up late. He missed the way nothing about the subject made sense. He missed the way Alex would get super stressed before exams and he and Luke would drag him out for ice cream. He missed it, he missed it, he missed it.

Mostly, he realized, he missed being _alive_.

Luke hummed, questioning but patient. His fingers were still busy, tapping out a beat against his shoulder. It was good – grounding.

“I don’t know. I’m just being weird I guess,” Reggie confessed, feeling embarrassed.

Luke shrugged, “Maybe a little. But, that’s okay. We’re all a little weird.”

Reggie nodded and swallowed, chest still burning. He looked back at the book, frowning at a particular bit that looked like gibberish.

Then, Luke asked, “Um, do you want help?”

Reggie looked up, eyes wide.

“You? You want to do math for fun?” Reggie asked, amused.

Luke was a man of many talents. Math was not one of them. 

Luke shrugged, standing up to stretch. He ran himself through a series of stretches, complexly overdramatic in his classic Luke-style. Then, he poofed his song writing journal into his hands and settled in next to Reggie.

“Ready!” Luke sang, grinning. “Just warning you, though, you’ll have to start from scratch. I stopped paying attention when they started talking about quadratics.”

Luke’s head was on his shoulder, so Reggie leaned his cheek against his hair, using him like a pillow. He flipped to the start of the book, watching Luke’s eyebrows already furrowing.

“You don’t have to, you know,” Reggie said softly.

Luke jostled him a bit, shoving his elbow into his side.

“Quiet, I’m trying to concentrate here,” Luke grumbled, but he looked up to smile.

“Alright,” Reggie said, stomach settling. “I’m quiet.”

They were still ghosts, and Reggie still felt like he was floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean, far from home with no where to go. But having Luke here, he could remember that he wasn’t alone in this. And… wasn’t that what mattered the most?


End file.
